Shmatko: "Turkey and Russia will build an oil refinery together"

Turkey and Russia have agreed to set up a joint oil refinery to market oil products, Russian Energy Minister Sergey Shmatko said yesterday. "We have been holding extensive negotiations on this project since last spring, and we've agreed to jointly build an oil refinery," Shmatko told reporters during an international oil conference in Moscow. "Our cooperation and the quick pace of the decision-making process are really impressive." He said both Russia and Turkey are "very excited" about the project's potential. Turkey, Russia and Italy recently signed a joint statement on the construction of an oil pipeline between Turkey's Black Sea coast and its Mediterranean coast. "We've done a great job analyzing the long-term oil outlook and agreed that the Samsun-Ceyhan oil pipeline would be an attractive alternative route for carrying oil," Shmatko said.